Among many other things, I bought a Vivitar 283 (flash) off of eBay and it arrived yesterday. Much to my dismay, it was missing one part and when I provided that part from another flash I have I found out it didn't work at all. I emailed the seller and told her that I would like a full refund including shipping. She wrote me back today saying that I should ship the item back to her and she'll refund my money.
On one hand that makes since. I have very little feedback on eBay and if she were to refund my money BEFORE I sent her the item, I could have a working item and all my money back. Even if I'm not lying and the item is broken, that doesn't mean I'll even bother to send it back to her once I get a refund. So I understand why should would want it this way.
On the other hand, I don't want to ship back an item that was misrepresented and lose what little bit I did get out of the transaction and run the risk of not being refunded my money. Then again, it's only $30 and the flash is pretty useless broken and would cost more than it's worth to fix, I imagine, so I'm not really out anything but the shipping if she doesn't refund my money.
What do you more savvy eBayers think?
